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The Construction Program went to a major update to clean up some code as well as adding data cards for every model currently available in game and a few more to boot (I even put the Scorpion in there for you :).

The Force Manager is also now available windows based machines. The FM zip contains the latest CP as well.

http://talon-games.com/downloads/CP/CAVFMv1728b.zip

Updated 2/25/2019

If you have any questions on its operation (either program), find a bug, find a model we missed, etc. please submit an email to: bugstomper(at)talon-games(dot)com

The following file compiles all of the data cards from the CAV CP and puts them in one master PDF file.

Is Jamming an ECM signal an active process that must be maintained like current Electronic Warfare counter Measures or is it more like an EMP that just turns off ECM?

In practice:

If my Talon activates ECM to block Target-Locks, then my opponent successfully Jams my ECM with his warden, is my ECM gone until next turn or would it be back if I immediately destroy the warden that jammed my ECM on my next activation during that turn?

My 2018 CAVCon After Action report is finally here. After a couple days to decompress and process everything, I thought I’d jot down a few notes, share a few photos, and do a few battle reports as best I can.

So I was able to attend Thursday evening, Friday evening, and all day Saturday. I live over an hour away, so it’s close enough to drive, but with two small kids and being butted up to Labor Day weekend, I wasn’t able to really attend all day on the two weekdays or Sunday. Had it been a non-holiday weekend, I would have taken off at least Friday, but as a teacher, four day weekends are frowned upon and might have someone checking in on me.

So ReaperCon/CAVCon was held at the Denton Convention Center which is also attached to the Embassy Suits. While I didn’t stay there, it would be cool to have a room, be able to shamble down to the Con areas, then shamble back up. The facilities were really nice and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. There was a lot of staff cleaning up, serving food and drinks, and security, so it seemed to run pretty well. I do feel bad for the wedding reception party that came in on Saturday and was passing our tables at the CAVCon tournament. They were a bit weirded out and didn’t realize there was going to be a big event going on at the same time! Opps!

CAVBoss was a bit short-handed on Thursday and wasn’t able to get the demo terrain or tournament table terrain set up, so MiniAdict, his son, and myself all sat around and painted. CAVBoss came over after the retail hall shut down and talked with us for awhile and then I had to call it day. I came back the next evening, and the tables were set up. When I got there, MiniAdict and his son had a game just set up so I hopped in and took over one of his son’s sections, a fire support section. The lists looked like this:

Malvernis-flavored Mercenaries
4x Chieftains
Archer
Nomad

2x Naginatas
Poltergiest
Nomad

(my squad)
3x Spector B’s
Spider

Templar (MiniAdict)
Centurion
Crusader
3x Duelists

2x Spartans
2x Claymores

For this game, there wasn’t a ton to really report on. My first strike point drifted onto a Duelist so I took off three damage tracks, next turn, I drifted one inch, so stayed on the Crusader and messed it up really good. MiniAdicts son lost almost all of his Chieftains in one turn as two of the Duelists and Centurion made short work of them. If you want to run Templars, Duelists can take care of your low armor vehicles and CAVs lickity split with it’s SIX light MAC’s! While this looked to be a nail in our coffin, the Poltergeist finished off the Crusader after another round of indirect rocket loving from myself and the Naginatas put a hurt on the third Duelist who was, well, dueling them. I hurt one of the Claymores pretty bad and the remaining chieftain killed the other one. Our Archer helped tip the balance back with it’s Active Phased Array 2 and insured some good solid hits. One of the Naginatas and the Poltergeist (this guy is scary too!) softened up the Centurion and my fire support section finished it off. In the end game, we lost the Archer, but he only had a damaged Duelist and Spartan left, so I feel fairly confident my fire support section and the Poltergeist could have finished the game. We had six or seven people wander over and start asking us questions, so we had an impromptu discussion about the game and did our best to sell!

I arrived bright and early to register for the CAVCon 2018 tournament after stopping by and friends donut shop I don’t get to stop by too often. We got our forces set up, printed out, and verified and got down to business. Due to real life issues, we only had three of the six participants from last year, so the tournament got me two games with a break in between. I went first against MiniAdict’s son and his mercenary force:

Section 1
Revenant (CO)
3x Starhawks VI

Section 2
4x Chieftains

Section 3
2x Poltergeist
2x Nomads

My force, drawn from the 5th Marienburg Brigade of the Ritterlich Republic, was ready to do battle!

Section 1
3x Rhino’s (one of which was the CO)
Cougar

Section 2
4x Lion II’s

Section 3
Catamount (proxied by a Jaguar)
3x Puma

We started deploying and I waited to deploy my big Rhino section till the end. I wanted to see were his stuff ended up, mainly the Poltergeists. I didn’t want them really engaging my little stuff or Lion IIs until I absolutely had to (aka, as close as possible!). This also allowed me to deploy my Rhino’s on the far right side and on turn one, my card came up first and I launched six medium guided missiles at his Revenant and took off a few tracks with some GREAT rolls (maybe two?). Other than that, we shuffled around and moved forward. I got another set of snipes on the Revenant to push it to four damage while also lighting up a Starhawk VI for a few. My Lion II’s moved up behind the central mountain while the recon squad spread out providing ECM coverage all over my half of the board. He got some pot shots on a Puma with the Poltergeists but didn’t kill him. The Revenant slunk away out of LOS of the Rhino’s while the Starhawks moved in, taking a beating along the way. They’d wage their own personal war on that side of the board for the rest of the game with the Rhino’s coming out on top and only suffering two damage. The Chieftains jumped the mountain top to kill a Puma, but in turn, my Lion II’s and one of my Rhino’s killed all four Chieftains, and pop up shots on the Poltergeists kill both of them. The Revenant topped the left side of the mountain and took the fire of four Lion II’s and a couple of Rhino’s before it expired, while one of the rushing Nomads was cut down. He had a Nomad race off the board for a Breakthrough point, while I claimed the Head Hunter point for killing his CO.

All in all, the Rhino’s heavier armor, range, the Catamount’s Active Phased Array, and three rotating ECM fields blocking target locks on my forces helped to squish the Starhawk VI’s on my right side. The Revenant concerned me because he healed up a few tracks from early attention, but eventually couldn’t stand up to heavy PBG fire and attention from my three Rhinos. The Lion II’s were great midfielders hiding in the mountains. Their high armor helped the one that ended up getting shot at by one of the Poltergeists (only suffered a single damage) while their insane damage output coupled with an Advanced Targeting Computer 2 and APA 2 sliced through the opposition.

So MiniAdict and his son then set about to play their game. While I had been finishing up against his son, a father/son were watching and asking questions. I offered to play a demo game using starter forces and so we played for a while. I wish I could say I “let him win” but my dice decided to land a strike point on both the Terran Talon off a drift, and dead on the Starhawk VI twice. From my Tiamet. The Talon disappeared in the drift and the Starhawk survived due to my horrible rolls, at least the first time, then I mauled him the second. They had to get to their painting class, but I had a fresh Rhino against a half-tracked Thunderbird, fresh Raptor, and track eight Starhawk. Sorry!!!

The dropship was also rolled out to the awe and amusement of everyone while the terrain and prototype miniatures were out the whole con. I saw, then it was time to rumble.

My second game was against MiniAdict’s Templars. Force looked like this:

Section 1
Centurion
3x Duelists

Section 2
Centurion
2x Spartans

It’s a little wonky because he was trying to get the fully painted bonus points and changed his list a couple times before deciding on this one. I was still worried about the Centurions. If they get close enough, they have four medium PBG’s that have been Pierced so they hit at 7’s instead of 6’s in the pristine track along with an ATC2 and Wizzo. That can really ruin any unit that gets their attention. As with before, I waited on my Rhino’s, but had to place them before he placed his main force. One of the Spartans was hanging out at 62 inches or so. Two of the Rhinos had line of sight and sent some missiles his way, taking him down some while the third ran out twelve inches. Next turn that Rhino went before the spartan section and snipped the Spartan dead, removing one of the ECM counters. Honestly the rest of the game just came down to dice, and MiniAdict could never turn off my APA2 as the dice just didn’t work for him. Ever. Every turn was "and now my Spartan will try to shut down the APA" and we'd roll and, yeah, wouldn't happen. The Lion II’s were again brutal and did a good job punching massive holes in anything that tried to move around the mountain (while being able to pop up and shoot stuff that was a little farther out. The Rhinos did their thing, sending long range fire down range and severely maiming anything unfortunate enough to come into line of sight.

All in all my dice rolling went well and I was able to stack several bonuses at a time to help push through a lot of damage. Talking after the event, we both agreed it wasn’t his best list and that hurt him in the end.

We all kind of vegged after that sitting around and near the demo area and explaining the game to anyone that came by with questions. I talked to several locals I know from here in the DFW area and we finally set in for the awards show. I received a bronze (I guess I got worse from last years silver?) for my Ritter section of a Cheetah, two Silverbacks, and a Panther. I have plans for next year. Whether I get to them or not I don’t know! I managed to win Best Painted CAV group (and a 100 gift certificate) as well as a 50.00 gift certificate for winning the Tournament! I’ll have some more CAV’s and paints in my near future!

At the end of the day I’m hoping that next year we’ll have more people turn out for CAVCon and really get things moving. I think this year was a great point as there was a lot of talk and activity about CAV (and a lot of people buying large amounts of miniatures) so hopefully we’ll see this next year!

A few nights ago I managed to get a game of CAV in with MiniAddict and is son at Texas Toy Solider in Carrollton, TX. Because of the three player nature we were faced with, his son and I were a team with each of us taking 3k points and MiniAddict taking 6.2k or so points! We set up long ways on the table and the only modification due to the terrain type we had was to play "true line of sight." Our terrain wasn't leveled well as it was more 40k/Fantasy terrain so this seemed to work. Forces were all "mercenary forces" by the rules due to composition/unit types"

Templar Mercenaries:
2x Centurion
3x Duelist
Spartan

Spartan
5x Javelin

ADON/Terran Mercenaries:
2x Naginatas
2x Wolves
2x Poltergiests

6x Chieftains

Ritter Mercenaries:
4x Lion II's
1x Cougar

Catamount (Jaguar model)
3x Puma's (blue Cougar models)
Thug

We also decided to use individual model activation with the cards as opposed to section activation.

So Turn one was pretty much everyone rushing forward and/or moving forward and activating ECM to discourage target lock pot shots. The Templar force was a little more cautious in it's approach than our side I think.

Turn 2 was really more of the same, though we had our first suppression with my Catamount suppressing the Spartan that had used it's ECM. One of the Javelins Run 'n' Gun'd and dropped four damage on my Cougar while the heavy tanks dropped a Javelin on the far left side.

For all intents and purposes, the game ended on turn three. We were positioned to be able to do a lot of damage and lucked out in the card deck draws. We had five or six cards turn in row. I took charge, activated the Catamount, and fired off his Active Phased Array 2, which netted all of the forward Templar elements. Next, two Chieftains raced up to the center Spartan (he's behind the rock in the center of the board) and killed him with medium PBG's. Next, my Thug moved over to put six damage on the far right Shootist. The Shootist attempted defensive fire and did maybe one damage. Everything else that shot at the Thug missed (honestly I thought I was trading the Thug to severely hurt the Duelist!). My Lion II's move up and gain line of sight to the second Duelist and kill it with one burn out (marked with a yellow 1.). Three chieftains peel left and kill the second Spartan while the other two Chieftains race over the left side Duelist and inflict some damage. Our heavy tanks move forward and kill the brave Javelin, while wiffing on the other. In MiniAddict's defense, his dice were about as cold as you could get. All night. It was painful for him and honestly for us because, in situations he should have inflicted damage or killed something (my Thug should have been dead) he'd only hit once or not at all. The only glimmer of light was one of his Centurions putting six damage tracks on one of my Lion II's. So there was that. My Puma's all used their ECM 2 and we moved on to Turn 4.

Turn Four was mainly advancing and cleaning up for our side. My Catamount activated APA2 again while my Thug brought down the Duelist (though he burned out and I retreated back around the corner before his Centurion could engage again. My Lion II's advanced forward and brought the center Centurion down to six damage tracks while follow up Chieftain hits brought it to 12 damage tracks. On the other side, the heavy tanks damaged the lone Javelin and the Chieftains played tag with the left side Duelist slowly wearing it down, though the Duelist did manage to kill one of them and severely damage the other. I lost a Lion II to a Centurion but my other three soldiered on.

We called it after turn five, as the Lion II's and three Chieftains finished off both Centurions, the Duelist fell to the LBG of the Puma, and the Javelin was smoked by a Poltergeist or Wolf. All in all MiniAddicts cold dice made this a lopsided game! There were a lot of lessons and questions for this game and we look forward to playing again!